The question for this month is: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

I frequently find myself going through my old writing and searching for inspiration. I unearthed my story "Felix Was Here" for the first IWSG anthology contest, and that move paid off. I recently pulled out the story that I wrote for the 2013 April A to Z Challenge and edited it, reworked parts of it, and self-published it on Smashwords.

As for stories that I wrote more than a handful of years ago, I have yet to rework them in their entirety. However, I have gotten plenty of use out of them. More than once, I've found myself mining those old stories for ideas to incorporate into new ones. And the inspiration for the novel I'm hoping to start writing later this year came from a novel I wrote in high school. That book was terrible, but I became intrigued by a side plot that I'd written into it. Yes, the side plot was more interesting than the main plot. This clearly illustrates that novel wasn't all that good. Still, I'm glad I wrote it, and I'm glad I held on to it. Those old stories are worth consideration.

I shared my lack of re-work on my blog including my why, but it sounds like, in this instance, it paid off for you to rework a story. The great thing about art (and especially writing) is that we are always improving, so we always have the opportunity to take what was a good idea and reform it into something better. :)

It's always nice when reworking a novel works out in our favor. I have a bunch of old stories sitting around and I'd love to do something with them because it feels like a waste to let them languish. LOL

Great idea to search old stuff for ideas. I do find myself reusing the same sort of ideas, which is a catch 22, really, as once I start publishing, I don't want my readers to reread the same plot twists or feel like they've read this story before. But that's a different issue. :-)

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About Me

I am many things: a writer, a mother, a wife, a certified nutcase. Well, maybe not certified. No one ever had me tested. My characters exist in my head like multiple personalities. I deal with my insanity by putting it on paper for others to read.